Lenin Moreno - 44th President of Ecuador

Today May 24th is Lenin Moreno´s inauguration ceremony, Ecuador's president-elect Lenin Moreno announced Tuesday the names of his cabinet, affirming the team had been “responsibly” created so that it would “reflect this new stage in the country’s history and our political process: diversity, unity and dialogue.”

Moreno was born into a middle-class family in Nuevo Rocafuerte, a small town in the Ecuadorian Amazon, near the Peruvian border. His father, Servio Tulio Moreno, was a teacher who promoted bilingual education and integrated schools for Indigenous children and mestizo children. Lenín Moreno was greatly influenced by his father’s example. He got his first name from his father, a professor who idolised Vladimir Lenin.

On 3 January 1998, two young men approached Moreno in a grocery store parking lot in Quito and demanded his car and his money. He handed over his wallet and keys, but one of the men shot him in the back anyway. This left Moreno paralyzed, unable to walk. In the first years following the shooting, Moreno was bedridden with intractable pain. When doctors were unable to suggest a workable course of action, Moreno turned to laughter therapy, which he had read about.[2] Although his doctors were skeptical, within four years of the shooting Moreno felt well enough to move about in a wheelchair and continue his work as a public servant.

Moreno has earned numerous awards while serving as vice president of Ecuador: the "Fray Jodoco Ricke" Award; the Order of the Sun of Peru in the rank of Grand Cross; and the Order of Merit to the Democracy, presented by the governments of Peru, Guatemala and Colombia, respectively. He was also recognized unanimously by the Council of the Metropolitan District of Quito on the order of Gran Collar Sebastian Benalcazar. He has received various Honoris Causa awards, from the Universidad de las Americas (University of the Americas), Universidad Tecnica del Norte del Ecuador (Technical University of Northern Ecuador) and the Universidad San Martin de Colombia (San Martin University of Colombia). He earned a Honoris Causa Masters, from the Business School (ESAE), Spain, on 25 November 2011.

Moreno was appointed as Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in December 2013.

And today May 24th he will take posession of the office and become the 44th presidente of Ecuador.